Role of eyes in early neural face processing

人脸加工是人脑最重要的认知功能之一，但对其潜在的神经机制仍知之甚少。在面部特征中，眼睛具有特殊的地位，涉及人脸处理的方方面面，从身份和情感识别到凝视识别。这项研究的目的是利用眼动监测和脑电记录等尖端技术，了解人脸加工中涉及的神经步骤，特别是确定眼睛在人脸感知的早期神经阶段中的作用。一项研究将确定整体处理与基于特征的处理所需的条件，以及眼睛在这些过程中的作用。另一项研究将使用神经适应方法来测试在面孔的早期处理阶段是否存在对面孔敏感和对眼睛敏感的神经元群体。一种新开发的早期人脸编码模型将进行测试。这项研究对于更好地理解眼睛在面部内的处理非常重要，这种处理在几种临床疾病中会出现错误。

Face processing is one of the most important cognitive functions of the human brain yet its underlying neural mechanisms are still poorly understood. Among facial features, the eyes have a special status and are involved in all aspects of face processing, from identity and emotion recognition to gaze discrimination. This research program aims at understanding the neural steps involved in face processing and in particular to determine the role of eyes in the early neural stages of face perception, using cutting edge technologies such as eye movement monitoring and electroencephalography recordings. One line of research will determine the conditions necessary for holistic versus feature based processing and the role of the eyes in these processes. Another line of research will use neural adaptation method to test for the proposed existence of face-sensitive and eye-sensitive neuronal populations involved in the early processing stages of faces. A newly developed model of early face encoding will be tested. This research is important to understand better the processing of the eyes within faces, which goes awry in several clinical disorders.